Friday Night Light(s)

Maya dragged herself through the hallway like a zombie after finals week, barely registering the fluorescent hum that gave everyone a headache. Three days of testing reduced her entire friend group to walking dead—slumped shoulders, dark circles, collective brain fog.

"You alive, bro?" Tyler fist-bumped her shoulder, the universal greeting that served as both hello and survival check.

"Barely," Maya yawned. "My brain is mush."

Outside, her dad's old golden retriever, Barnaby, waited by the curb. The dog had been her mom's—a senior photo prop she couldn't bear to part with after the divorce. Now Barnaby was Maya's emotional support animal by default, floppy ears and everything.

"Hey buddy," she whispered, scratching behind his ears. "Wanna hear something pathetic?"

Barnaby thumped his tail, because dogs are excellent listeners.

"I have to bear three more years of this," Maya sighed, watching the lacrosse team set up for tonight's game under the lights. "Three. More. Years."

Then she saw him—Lucas Chen, bending down to tie his cleat. The boy she'd been crushing on since orientation made eye contact and actually smiled. A real smile, not the polite nod he gave everyone else.

Her zombie-status evaporated. Suddenly she was wide awake, heart doing backflips.

"Hey Maya," Lucas called. "You coming tonight?"

"Wouldn't miss it," she heard herself say, cool and composed.

Barnaby chose that exact moment to shake himself vigorously, spraying pond water all over her white jeans.

"Classic," Lucas laughed.

Maya could feel herself turning the color of a stop sign. But Lucas was still smiling. And suddenly three years didn't seem so unbearable anymore.